This study deals with various problems concerning imperial mausoleums from a historical perspective. Particular attention is paid to the treatment of the mausoleums from the late Edo period throughout the Meiji era. The mausoleums have been primarily investigated with archeological interests. This is not an accidental trend at all. Since the end of World War II, researchers and educators of Japanese history have acquired the view that we have to base Japanese history upon archeological facts, rather than mythological anecdotes. Despite this increased interest in archeological investigation, many of the huge mausoleums have been concealed as emperor's private tombs, disallowing any type of academic research to be conducted upon them. It is thus our greatest regret that we are still unable to do a scientific research on Emperor Nintoku's mausoleum, the biggest mausoleum in Japan. This in turn means that our children have been deprived of the opportunity to learn from one of the most prec
… Moreious historical assets. How can we overcome this difficulty?There are actually two types of methods that have been employed to deepen our understanding of the off-limit mausoleums. The first method is to study documents from the Edo period that depict the mausoleums in detail. During the Edo period, mausoleums were open to the public and many documents were written that give verbal and pictorial descriptions of the external and internal structures of mausoleums. So these documents are considered to be a reliable, even though secondary, source of the otherwise unavailable information of the inaccessible mausoleums. The second method is to ask ourselves the following questions : why are the mausoleums closed to the public in the first place? ; why is the scientific study prohibit? ; and when were these restrictions first imposed? By answering these questions, we hope to show that the various restrictions that have been imposed on the mausoleums are in fact without reasonable grounds.These two methods are both extremely useful for the study of the mausoleums. The present study is intended to form the basis for the second approach. Hense, for the sake of helping build the database for the future research, I have attached a chronological table from the late Edo period through the Meiji Era that enumerates various incidents concerning the treatment of the mausoleums. This way, the present study would become more useful for the researchers who desire to shed further light on the imperial mausoleums in Japan. Less